Deadly Driving: Teen Drivers

The number of teenagers involved in deadly car crashes is rising for the first time in nearly a decade. New data from federal regulators reveal a 10-percent increase last year in teen driving deaths. Teens are more than one-and-a-half times more likely than adults to be involved in a deadly crash. Official data show a highly dangerous spike in distracted driving related car accidents. Read more about this topic and if you are interested in car insurance for your teen driver, check our website and get automobile insurance online.

Distracted driving is an increasing problem, and it is especially dangerous for teenage drivers, who haven’t been driving long and who are not always thinking of the consequences of their actions. Distracted driving includes more than just using a phone while driving, but texting is one of the most common and deadly types of distracted driving there is.

A full 60 percent of car crashes involving teenagers occur while these young and inexperienced drivers are talking, texting or are otherwise distracted. And this happens far more often during the summer, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

For the study, researchers at the University of Iowa and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety analyzed the moments leading up to a crash in more than 2,200 videos from in-car dashboard cameras.

The researchers found these top three distractions for teens:

Talking to passengers accounted for 15 percent of crashes.

Talking, texting or operating a cellphone accounted for 12 percent of crashes.

Looking at something inside the car accounted for 11 percent of crashes.

According to the AAA report, released June 1 2016, more than 1,000 people die in crashes involving teen drivers every year. And summer is the most dangerous season, when the average number of deaths involving teen drivers aged 16 to 19 increases 16 percent per day compared with other times of the year.